C.J. Prosise has one game in his young career with more than five carries. Still, the Seattle Seahawks' rookie running back helped make Christine Michael expendable with his 17-carry, seven-reception, 153-yard performance against the Patriots and is in line for the bulk of the carries while Thomas Rawls is eased back into the rotation.
Teammates are all in on Prosise.
"He reminds me a little bit of Arian Foster, just with his ability to make plays outside of the box and in the passing game," receiver Doug Baldwin said, via ESPN.com. "Similar to Matt Forte as well. But he's also a very aggressive runner. So he's got a lot of talents to him."
That's high praise for a running back with a grand total of 26 career carries. Prosise displays shiftiness and speed to the edge, a Theo Riddick-like acumen in the passing game, and a willingness to put his shoulders down between the tackles.
The mismatches against linebackers in the passing game are what led Baldwin to the Foster/Forte comparisons.
"That's huge for us because it adds another element that defenses have to account for," Baldwin said. "And when you add that to it, it opens more things up for myself, for Jimmy Graham], for Jermaine [Kearse] and Tyler [Lockett] and [Paul Richardson. And it's going to be very hard for defenses to stop us if you add that element to it."
Per ESPN's Sheil Kapadia, Seahawks coaches use the term "dark creases" to describe how a running back must trust that the proper hole will be there for a specific play. The team was giddy about what they saw in that regard from Prosise in his first start.
"There's daylight on the other side," offensive line coach Tom Cable said. "You've just got to trust it. You've got to go in there. It's ugly. It's kind of bloody. It doesn't look cool sometimes. But once you get through, put your head through, it's like, 'Ok. That's what he meant.' So it's trust, definitely."
The praise for Prosise coupled with the questions about Michael's willingness to trust those creases would be there might explain the Seahawks' willingness to place full duties on a rookie back with minimal experience and Rawls, who hasn't taken a snap since September.
